degrassifandomcom-20200223-history
Talk:Firestarter (1)/@comment-3575890-20141231191931
TRIGGER WARNING: Rape I really must be in the minority with all of the hate Zoe is receiving right now because I have never loved her more. Don't mistake me. I understand why people would hate on her now, but...how is she any worse than she was before? In the beginning, she was just as vicious, vindictive, and remorseless as she is now, with the only defining difference being that she lacked depth and dimension. Whereas before she came off as just a spoiled mean girl with a diva-complex whom was vicious as fuck to everyone for no good reason, now her behavior, while still awful, is completely understandable and it honestly puzzles me that people who have loved her since the start are turning on her now when there is an actual explanation behind her behavior this time. Now, she's easily the single most compelling, ambiguous character on the show and I can't get enough of her. Yes, she's not a very nice person sometimes, but there are a fuck ton of circumstantial AND psychological factors that contribute to her unruly behavior. While it's no excuse, she's a rape victim and needless to say, undergoing a traumatizing ordeal like that can fuck up anyone mentally and emotionally. In fact, as I've already stated many a time, it can rewire brain circuits that dramatically affect the way the mind thinks in relation to sex and relationships and perception of one's self worth. There's no excuse for it, BUT when you put it into perspective, her behavior makes SO MUCH SENSE. She started Degrassi Nudes in her desperation to gain back the power she had lost at the hands of her rapists. There is no true sense in her logic, but that is kind of the entire point as it shows she is stuck in an irrational frame of mind and in her twisted mindset, she believes that giving herself freely somehow grants her immunity from being taken against her will again. This whole time, while it may seem like she's just playing the rape victim card and isn't affected by her rape, everything she's done has been because of her rape. Because she cannot cope properly. Because she believes the only way that the student body will stop viewing her as a victim is if she appears powerful and ruthless, and in order to do that, she must play her cards right. Because she looks to cheerleading as her only vice that can keep her going. Because she just wants to forget and move on with her life and this is the only way she knows how to do it. Zoe is so heartbreakingly damaged. She's not evil. She was an already damaged little girl that fell completely off the deep end after falling victim to a most heinous crime and THIS is how she is dealing with it. It's unhealthy and morally skewed, but there is no right way that a rape victim reacts. In fact, promiscuous behavior is a common symptom of rape trauma syndrome. That is not a generalization, that is a fact based on statistics, and in that sense, I believe that Zoe's post-rape recovery is the most realistic of any rape aftermath the writers have ever shown us. But I digress. Circling back to Zoe's awful behavior in comparison to then versus now - Zoe now has a reason to behave this way, and for that, she has my understanding and sympathy. She was cruel as hell to poor Frankie yesterday, but bear in mind, she acted in the belief that Frankie had already been blackmailing and tormenting her and her fellow squad members, and even while she still thought that, she took the higher road and deleted what she had thought to be her only leverage to spare Frankie from the pain she endured when photos of her were distributed without her consent (in addition to other horrific things...). Now, more than ever, Zoe is showing humanity. I do not understand why anyone would think she is a sociopath given the mitigating circumstances AND the fact that she chose not to ruin Frankie when she very well had the motive (believing Frankie was blackmailing her) and the means to.